Introductory - It is but reasonable to expect of a people professing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and claiming membership in the one accepted and divinely invested Church, that they manifest in practise the virtues that their precepts inculcate. True, we may look in vain for perfection among those even who make the fullest claims to a religious life; but we have a right to expect in their creed ample requirements concerning the most approved course of action , and in their lives, sincere and earnest effort toward the practical realization of their professions. Religion, to be of service and worthy of acceptance, must be of wholesome influence in the individual lives and temporal affairs of its adherents. Among other virtues the Church in its teachings should impress the duty of a law-abiding course; and the people should show forth the effect of such precepts in their probity as citizens of the nation and the community of which they are part.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints makes emphatic declaration of its belief and precepts regarding the duty of its members toward the laws of the land, and sustains its position by the authority of specific revelation in ancient as in present times. Moreover, the people are confident that when the true story of their rise and progress as an established body of religious worshipers is fully known, the loyalty of the Church and the patriotic devotion of its members will be vindicated and extolled by the world in general, as now by the few unprejudiced investigators who have studied with honest purpose the history of this remarkable organization.

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Teachings of the Church-Perhaps there can be presented herein no better summary of the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints regarding its relation to the civil power, and the respect due to the laws of the land, than the official declaration issued by the Prophet Joseph Smith, and which has been incorporated in the Doctrine and Covenants-one of the standard works of the Church, adopted by vote of the Church as one of the accepted guides in faith, doctrine, and practise.